Twin sports betting scandals swept through professional basketball and baseball in the last month, leaving the NBA and MLB scrambling to defend the integrity of their respective games.
But both leagues continue to court scandal by promoting and partnering with online sportsbooks, which fuel rampant gambling corruption in professional sports.
“It’s sort of an unnecessary crisis of their own making,” Jonathan Cohen, author of Losing Big: America’s Reckless Bet on Sports Gambling, told PBS.
“With a little bit more foresight [and] a little bit less greed, they wouldn’t have had this problem in the first place.”
Between October 23 and November 9, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York charged a current NBA player, two current MLB players, a former NBA player and an NBA head coach with using inside information to profit from fraudulent sports bets.
Emmanuel Clase and Luis L. Ortiz, two pitchers for the Cleveland Guardians, allegedly conspired to place illegal sports bets by rigging pitches, per an indictment filed on November 9.
Clase netted conspirators an estimated $400,000 over two years by agreeing to throw certain kinds or speeds of pitches ahead of time.
Clase recruited Ortiz in June. Both players allegedly accepted $12,000 bribes for Ortiz to throw pre-determined pitches in two different games. Wagers on Ortiz’s pitches alone racked up some $60,000 in fraudulent gambling profits.
Bets on whether the next pitch will be a ball or strike are some of the many proposition or “prop” bets gamblers can place at contemporary sports books.
“Prop” bets wager on event outcomes or player performances within a single game — like whether the next play will result in a first down or a player will hit a certain number of home runs.
Gamblers can place dozens of these per game, which is why many prop bets are also called “micro-bets.”
Micro-betting did not exist prior to online sports betting. Gamblers cannot wager on each play without the speed and connectivity of the internet.
Micro-bets are also uniquely vulnerable to fraud, because individual players like Clase and Ortiz can single-handedly manipulate the outcome of a micro-bet without doing something obvious, like throwing a game.
The ease and perceived stealth of prop-bet fraud make fraudulent sports betting a constant temptation for professional athletes and league employees looking to cash in.
Perhaps that’s why, less than three weeks before charging Clase and Ortiz, the Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York indicted Miami Heat point guard Terry Rozier and former NBA player and coach Damon Jones for using confidential information to help accomplices place illegal sports bets.
Rozier allegedly profited from micro-bets on his tepid performance after he faked an injury and left a game early.
Though not named in the indictment with Rozier, Oregon Trail Blazers head coach Chauncey Billups is thought to be “Co-Conspirator 8,” who allegedly disclosed the Blazers’ plan to throw a game against the Chicago Bulls.
A subsequent indictment claims Billups and Jones used their fame to lure wealthy people to poker games rigged by the mob.
The NBA and MLB opened the door to rampant sports betting fraud by promoting and partnering with online sports books.
FanDuel and DraftKings, the two biggest online sportsbooks in the country, are official partners of both leagues. Each sportsbook sponsors many professional baseball and basketball teams, as do other major players including Caesars, BetMGM and Fanatics.
Sportsbooks made nearly $3.5 billion off Americans in the third quarter of 2024 alone, per the American Gaming Association. MLB and the NBA ignored the obvious risk of fraud, Cohen believes, to capture a slice of the profits.
He emphasized to PBS:
Maybe, if the leagues had had a little bit more foresight, they wouldn’t have ever offered the chance to bet on the speed of a baseball pitch — because who in their right mind is gambling on the speed of a baseball pitch?
The solution is clear: The NBA and MLB must stop promoting the same companies creating new ways to undermine fair sports.
Until then, the integrity of basketball and baseball games will remain a losing bet.
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